Next PAC Meeting April 18th @ 6:00pm PAC Presentation: So We Have a Revised Curriculum: What Does This Mean for My Child? Presented by BC Teacher’s Federation

Budget report – March 28th, 2017

General Fund includes MunchALunch deposit from PayPal as of March 27, 2017 ($1,147.66). If this amount is for upcoming pizza/subway lunches, then we would expect more offsetting expenses to come later (Fundraiser results may be overstated at this point in time).

Need to determine whether there is sufficient funds in General Account to allocate an amount to Garden Fund. Current balance in General Fund only sufficient to cover remaining commitments to teacher classroom incentives, book exchange, classroom field trip transportation, and a few other items.

Playground installation – labour portion $2,380 is paid out from General Account resulting in negative PG allocation. Need to motion the labour spend to validate payment back to the school and net out PG commitment in General Account.

Mar 28/17 PAC Meeting Garden Report

Phase 3 of the Food Garden expansion is complete with the addition of 6 new boxes installed on March 2. We now have a total of 18 raised planter boxes, the largest above ground school garden in the district!

Video presentation of the Box Building Day

RBC Days of Giving Grant is providing $1,000 towards signage for the garden. RBC staff will be volunteering their time to help us with the signage at a future date.

Garden funds are currently depleted (the box building expenses totalled ~$4,000 alone). Val will be submitting more grant applications over the next few months, but we would like PAC to consider setting aside more funds for the garden as it has done in previous years.

We are asking administration to consider incorporating a small “Garden Fee” along with the other school fees, perhaps $5 per student, to help fund the garden. We have spent a huge amount of time, effort and money into the garden, and we want to ensure that it is used effectively. We would like to consider hiring someone from another organization to help oversee and manage the garden.

We have made a request to change the quote for a new water tap at the portable building to be for a new tap in the middle of the garden instead. This will increase the cost (initial quote of ~$800 for the tap at the portable building), but we do not yet know by how much. This new tap in the middle of the garden will make watering much easier with less long and heavy hoses required.

We hope to have a Pocket Market at the school later this spring to sell some of the vegetables we’ve grown as a fundraiser. In the fall, we plan to sell seeds that we’ve collected from the garden.

DPAC EMB Report – March 28th, 2017

DPAC

At the February 23, 2017 DPAC Meeting, feedback on BC Hydro’s SEED Proposal was the main topic of discussion. Dianne Turner, Official Trustee, was in attendance as well as Guy Bonnefoy, interim Secretary-Treasurer for the Vancouver School Board.

I attended the first meeting of the EMB Secondary Transition Committee on March 2, 2017.

After introductions, the purpose/mandate of the committee and relevant district policies were discussed. Then we moved into a group discussion about hopes for the program at the secondary level and concerns/wishes.

A few committee members around the table, myself included, expressed our opinion that it would be advantageous to combine the Mandarin program at the high school level with other existing Mandarin programs. Concerns about the timetable for a decision on the high school were also raised.

The next meeting is set for Monday, April 3rd. At this time, we will be looking more closely at space requirements and availability. Hopefully we will begin establishing a criteria for selecting the high school for the Mandarin program at this time. This is where I’d like to see the most immediate progress and where I’ll be focusing my efforts for the time being.

Thanks to all the parents for their patience and support and please keep the feedback coming! Questions are welcomed, or feel free to pull me aside at school. I can be reached at shauna.cook@hotmail.com.